Time Out New York / Issue 659 : May 14–20, 2008
James Frey
The fabulist author has got friends in low places. Really.
Illustration: Rob Kelly
Other than a recent feature in Vanity Fair, James Frey has kept a low profile since his January 2006 televised smackdown by Oprah Winfrey. That infamous episode came, of course, shortly after a muckraking website found numerous inaccuracies in his best-selling addiction memoir, A Million Little Pieces, and shamed not only Frey but the publishing industry as a whole. This week, the 38-year-old New York resident will face both fans and foes when he sets out on a tour to promote his new book, Bright Shiny Morning—which Frey unequivocally and absolutely promises is complete fiction.
Time Out New York: In Vanity Fair, you said you weren’t doing any more press. What gives?
James Frey: There are two answers to that. The first is that I felt more comfortable doing that interview than I expected to. And second, my publisher asked me to do more press, and it’s my job to do what my publisher asks me to do.
TONY: Are you nervous about reading in public?
James Frey: Of course I’m nervous. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens. I’m sure there’ll be some people there who want to yell at me.
TONY: There could be a riot.
James Frey: Well, I hope there’s no riot. But if there is, at least I know I’ll be safe.
TONY: Right. You hired the Hells Angels to handle security on the book tour.
James Frey: Yes. At some of the venues.
TONY: Do you really need security?
James Frey: We don’t know. I do get pretty harsh hate mail.
TONY: Like what?
James Frey: Some guy sent me a letter saying he hoped I got ass cancer and died in front of my wife and kid. I got another that said, “I want to cut your head off and shit down your neck.”
TONY: Wow, maybe you do need security. It would suck to be decapitated and then used as a toilet.
James Frey: Yeah. Obviously I hope that never happens. It would be pretty unpleasant. Although once my head came off, I guess I wouldn’t have to deal with any of the rest of it.
TONY: Why the Hells Angels?
James Frey: I wrote a movie about the Hells Angels for Tony Scott. I spent time with them. They’re fun guys to hang out with. Frankly, they’re very intimidating. I feel very safe around them.
TONY: They’ve given you a nickname, haven’t they?
James Frey: They haven’t given me a nickname.
TONY: Come on! Not Chuckles? They don’t call you Chuckles Frey?
James Frey: No. But if they start calling me that I’ll let you know.
TONY: Do the Hells Angels know that you wrote a movie in 1998 named after a George Michael song?
James Frey: What, Kissing a Fool? I don’t know. That hasn’t ever come up.
TONY: Maybe it shouldn’t. Will Father Figure be your next novel, then?
James Frey: Yeah. Or maybe Patience. In big capital letters.
TONY: Do you have any other embarrassing musical influences?
James Frey: New Edition. “Popcorn Love” and “Candy Girl” are classic songs from my childhood. Occasionally in the car I listen to channel 3 on Sirius Radio, which is love songs.
TONY: Really? You strike me as a Hootie and the Blowfish kind of guy.
James Frey: I saw Hootie once at the Wetlands and I gotta say, they actually sorta rocked. And when they played “Hold My Hand,” my fist was in the air.
TONY: Do you feel any vindication that only about 1,600 people actually asked for the refund offered by Random House for A Million Little Pieces?
James Frey: You know, I can’t discuss any of that. I can’t discuss any legal anything.
TONY: Did everybody in your family take their copies back?
James Frey: [Laughs] They might have and didn’t tell me. That’s pretty funny. I’ll call my mom and ask her.
TONY: It seems to me that someone could make a pretty decent living going door to door rounding up copies of your book and returning them.
James Frey: There’s probably much easier and less complicated ways to try to make money. But they probably could.
TONY: So. Oprah. Did you send her a copy of Bright Shiny Morning?
James Frey: I certainly didn’t. I don’t know if my publicist did. I profoundly doubt it.
Bright Shiny Morning (Harper, $27) is out now.